


Heartbreaker

by yunmin



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Backstory, Friendship, Gen, Pre-OT3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-02
Updated: 2016-01-02
Packaged: 2018-05-11 05:19:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5615335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yunmin/pseuds/yunmin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Here's the thing about Poe Dameron. For a man notorious as the Resistance's biggest heartbreaker, he hasn't really broken any hearts.</p>
<p>OR</p>
<p>Leia Organa watches her best pilot over the years, and realises the strength of his love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heartbreaker

Here's the thing about Poe Dameron. For a man notorious as the Resistance's biggest heartbreaker, he hasn't really broken any hearts.

General Organa watches her lead pilot carefully. He wears his heart on his sleeve; is as reckless about flying as his mother was; and reminds her a little too much of the two good men who left her. Sure, he has a tendency to fall in love with a new person on every planet he steps foot on. He'll be heard in the hangar bay, proclaiming the beauty of his new love, how wondrous they were, and how it is such a shame he was torn from then too soon. Iolo Arana will sigh in the background, familiar with Poe's exploits, while Jessika Pava issues a sharp elbow to Poe's ribs. All the pilots will laugh loudly, and the teasing commences. Poe takes it all with a generous smile.

It's entertaining to watch, and regular as clockwork. But by the fifth time Leia watches it, she realises it's a performance. Poe may be genuine in his affections, but he is not upset at losing any of these lovers. But his squadron gets joy out of mocking Poe, and it becomes clear that the only people Poe really cares about are his team mates.

He has had dalliances that have lasted longer than his stay on a planet. He and Luta Rainassan, a fast-rising Republic politician, have something that must have been going on for near a decade. But while Poe loves her, he's not in love with her. Instead, their relationship is kept up mostly for the political alliance it brings, and Luta knows that.

Leia supposes that some of Poe's romantic nature is down to his parents, who were in love from the day they met. Even his mother's death has not stopped his father loving her ‒ Kes Dameron hasn't moved on. And the pair of them were just as devoted to the Rebel Alliance as they were to each other. Poe, in lieu of finding anything that lives up to their relationship with each other, has instead thrown himself heart and soul into the Resistance.

But something interesting that Leia notices, is that Poe doesn't tend to date fellow Resistance members. At first, she thinks that's smart. Things get too heated, too complicated, too quickly when your life relies on the same person you might be falling in love with. Then she sees it as what it is; a defence mechanism. Too much of Poe's day-to-day life is classified for him to ever form a meaningful, lasting relationship with someone who isn't Resistance. He extricates himself from relationships with ease, as befits the charming hero of the Resistance; but his lovers never seem sad to see him go. They've realised, by that point, that Poe will never give them what he nor they want.

So really, after watching Poe for so many years, alarm bells should be ringing in Leia Organa's head when he comes back after that disastrous Jakku mission and tells her all about a Stormtrooper who rescued him. A man who didn't even have a name until Poe gifted him one. Poe makes a fierce argument that they need to find him, just as much as they need to find BB-8, that they can trust him, that this could be a turning point in the fight against the First Order if they can cause a Stormtrooper revolution. Leia dismisses it all as mission adrenaline, bonds formed in the heat of battle, Poe's generous nature.

It is only later ‒ so much later ‒ when Leia finds Poe next to the aforementioned Stormtrooper's bed, as he lies in a coma with injuries caused by fighting her son, that she realises. Poe has given his heart to this man, having only known him for a matter of hours. And the girl, Rey, the hope for a new generation, she is standing there too. Looking at Finn like he means the world to her as well. She mutters something, and Poe turns his head, and he's known Rey for even less time than he's known Finn, but Leia knows that look. Infatuation. Adoration. Love. Your world narrowing to only two people.

BB-8 rolls up and chirps. Leia nods. "Yes, your master certainly has landed himself in a pit of trouble." Beep beep. "You'll look after him, won't you?" BB-8 whistles an affirmative, and then rushes past Leia into the med-bay. At the disturbance, Rey turns, and notices Leia staring. With a touch of a hand to Poe's shoulder ‒ a touch that Poe leans into, subconsciously or not ‒ Rey leaves.

Leia watches as Poe settles into the chair at Finn's bedside, as he leans over to take Finn's hand. Already she can see the devotion. And suddenly, Leia knows why she's never been worried about Poe breaking hearts. Because he's exactly the sort of person who gets his heart broken.

She can't exactly threaten an unconscious ex-stormtrooper, and she suspects Rey wouldn't have a clue what she was on about. But if they do hurt Poe, they'll know about it.

Here's hoping it doesn't come to that.

**Author's Note:**

> all i really want in this world is poe and finn and rey in a cuddle pile while general organa watches her kids with pride is that too much to ask?? [join me in my emotions on [tumblr.](drinkupthesunrise.tumblr.com)]


End file.
